This invention relates to a smoke generating composition which essentially consists of a metallic oxide, ammonium perchlorate, an organic chlorine donor and a plasticizer and a buffering agent.
There is already known in the state of the art a smoke generating or fog generating composition which is essentially produced from metallic oxide, ammonium perchlorate and an organic chlorine donor (see for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,724,382). This type of smoke composition yields a dense, surface-adhering fog, having good camouflage properties. However, the produced smoke or fog composition has the serious drawback of being strongly acidic. In addition to the physiological harmful action caused by this known fog or smoke composition, the corrosive effect caused by the acid contained therein must also be considered. This corrosive effect may cause damage to the installations and defense equipment of the combat unit that is producing the camouflage smoke or fog. In addition thereto, these known smoke or fog compositions, due to their sensitivity to atmospheric moisture, have only a limited storage life. Therefore, these known smoke or fog generating compositions have a short useful life. Moreover, the additional risk exists that the smoke generating composition may spontaneously ignite due to absorbtion to atmospheric moisture.
Attempts have been made to remove or mitigate the aforedescribed drawback in smoke generating compositions. For example, the limited storage life of such smoke generating compositions has been improved by the addition of a storage-stable HC (hexochlorethane). Such a smoke generating composition is disclosed in German published application No. 24 51 701.